Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com SEOUL — The looming 70th anniversary of the Japanese surrender and Korea’s ”liberation” reminds us of the dangers of new wars in a region where peace may be a fleeting phenomenon. North Korea, writhing under the humiliation of the failure of “Great Leader” Kim Il-Sung’s invasion of the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com The North Koreans could not have come up with a better way to publicize a movie. Can anyone imagine a Hollywood comedy causing a diplomatic storm involving United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and threats of “resolute and merciless” retaliation against the country that spawned this slapstick nonsense? The […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com SEOUL — North Korea has dropped the image of its founding father Kim Il-Sung from new banknotes as grandson and new leader Kim Jong-Un struggles to assert his authority, sources and analysts said. The North’s new 5,000-won bills obtained by the South Korean government no longer feature Kim Il-Sung. On […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com SEOUL — A group North Korean officials accompanied Kim Jong-Un on his visit to the remote “Revolutionary Battle Site” of Samjiyon where he made a final decision to purge his uncle. These officials are being viewed as the new core members of the ruling elite, sources and analysts here say. […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com On the day before Jang Song-Thaek’s execution, his wife, Kim Kyong-Hui, divorced him. The man whom she had met when they were both students at Kim Il-Sung University, he a charmer who played the accordion at parties, she the daughter of the Great Leader Kim Il-Sung, had deserted […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com We’ll never hear the end of questions about what a different world it would have been if President John Fitzgerald Kennedy had not been shot and killed one sunny day in Dallas in 1963. The 50th anniversary, Nov. 22, has spawned countless articles and a number of books […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com NEW DELHI — Within India’s long borders, as many as 65 million people are slaves. That’s according to the U.S. State Department’s annual “Trafficking in Persons” report, which classifies India as having more slaves than any other country on earth. “The forced labor of an estimated 20 to […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com WASHINGTON — Looking at those tight-knit squares of goose-stepping North Korean troops on TV, you wonder if they’re the same ones every time. Do they hang out at some special base going through their paces day after day so they’ll be picture perfect whenever called on to show […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com NEW DELHI — The late “Great Leader” Kim Il-Sung no doubt drew upon the teachings of Mao Zedong when he formulated his philosophy of “juche” or self-reliance, but one word you never hear on visits to North Korea is “Maoism.” If North Korea recognizes Mao Zedong as an […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com The outlook for Kenneth Bae, the American preacher/tour guide who’s been sentenced to 15 years hard labor in North Korea, is bleak. That’s because his offenses against the system sound a lot more serious than those of three people rescued by former American presidents in great blazes of […]